Game Builder Garage (NSW) Overview Trailer

This morning, Nintendo shared a brand-new overview trailer, this time for English-speaking audiences, for its upcoming game creation tool, Game Builder Garage. Learn all about this enterprising software with this in-depth trailer featuring explanations about Nodons, tutorials, sharing creations, and much more. Game Builder Garage sets up shop on the Nintendo Switch on June 11th, 2021.

Sonic Colors: Ultimate (NSW, PS4, XB1, PC) Announce Trailer

While there wasn't too much that was overly exciting during Sonic the Hedgehog's 30th anniversary video showcase this morning, which just wrapped up, this announcement hyped me up considerably. After all, the original Sonic Colors isn't just one of my favorite 3D Sonic games, but also one of my favorite Wii games in general. I'm glad the game is no longer stuck to the system with Sonic Colors: Ultimate. Check out this premiere trailer for the game. Sonic Colors: Ultimate speeds onto Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox, and PC (though the game seems to be an Epic Games Store exclusive at the moment) on September 7, 2021.

Instant Sports Tennis (NSW) Rapid Review

SuperPhillip Central introduces a new type of review on the site: Rapid Reviews. As you can probably imagine by the name, Rapid Reviews serve the purpose of being shorter, more contained reviews. Too large to be an SPC Quickie, but too small to be considered an ordinary, traditional-length review. Our first Rapid Review is for a new indie tennis game meant and marketed for a family and more casual audience. However, as you'll see with Instant Sports Tennis, this tennis title--no matter how quaint and cozy it is--is anything but family-friendly for one prominent reason.

A tennis title that goes out of bounds way too often.

I originally played BreakFirst's premiere tennis title for the Nintendo Switch, Instant Tennis, back around the start of 2019. In my review, I said the game was a bit too basic for a player like myself, but understandably so as I wasn't the target audience. BreakFirst is back at it again, two years later, with a more enhanced and updated sequel, Instant Sports Tennis. With more characters, courts, a new campaign, and several engaging mini-games, does BreakFirst's second outing score a smashing ace or a double fault?

Instant Sports Tennis sports two control methods. The first is motion controls, and these aren't executed as if you're actually playing tennis. You don't feel like you're playing tennis with the motion controls; you're simply replacing a button press with a downward motion to hit the ball. Your character moves automatically towards the ball, so this is helpful for beginning players who can't track the ball as well or are unaccustomed to movement on the analog stick. The only thing you control with motion controls on is the direction of the ball being hit, which is done by twisting the JoyCon controller left or right to aim. 

The other control method is traditional buttons controls, which will most likely be the preferred method for more seasoned players. There is the analog stick for movement, the right face button for a normal strike and the top face button for a lob. It's nothing overly complicated, but at the same time it may be a bit TOO basic for those aforementioned more seasoned players. At the same time, this game really isn't meant or being marketed towards that demographic anyway.

That said, despite Instant Sports Tennis being marketed towards family and more casual-oriented players, it leads me to a major issue with the game. The main problem with the gameplay is how ridiculously easy it is to overshoot and aim out of bounds. More times than I care to count I was losing matches, and frustratingly so, not because I was missing shots hit to me, but more because I kept hitting balls out of bounds. 

It was incredibly aggravating and only made me dislike the act of playing this game further. The window is just way too tight, especially when you get to more difficult opponents who can rush across the court quite easily. This means you basically have to aim for the opposite edges of the court, but again, this is way too risky considering how easy it is to strike a ball out of bounds. I guess my point is that if it's so effortless to hit the ball out of bounds for a seasoned tennis game player like myself, how are casual and less skilled players NOT going to be annoyed with this game?

Instant Sports Tennis is a much meatier game compared to the original Instant Tennis. There are more characters to play as, there are various mini-games to play, and there's a quasi-involved campaign to partake in as well. This campaign is a linear affair, essentially presenting the player with various courts, characters, match and mini-game types to play through, as they unlock new content for the base game. Unfortunately, if you're like me (and as a general rule, so help you if you are), you'll probably hit a dead end midway through the campaign because suddenly the jump in difficulty is high. Not so much because the AI is good, but the court is so narrow and it's rather easy to hit the ball out of bounds. I eventually conceded and moved back to Mario Tennis Aces.

So, that sort of shows my and my family's level of engagement with Instant Sports Tennis. It was basically nil--or I guess considering we're talking about tennis here, so I should the tennis term for zero--"love". It's too basic for veterans of tennis video games, and from what I played with my non-gaming family, it's too frustrating and hard for beginners because of how stupidly easy it is to hit a ball out of bounds. While I very much appreciate the obvious strong effort put into this tennis title by the small team behind the game, what you're left with is a tennis game that "serves" a very niche audience. My family promptly decided to return to Mario Tennis Aces for our tennis fun, at least on the Nintendo Switch, and perhaps yours will, too. 

[SPC Says: D+]

A code was received by SPC from the publisher for the purpose of writing this review.

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (PS5) "Story Overview" Trailer

Ready for one more slice from Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart? This time PlayStation and Insomniac Games are lifting the curtain on the story of Rift Apart. Once again, Zurkon Jr. brings its harmonious voice to deliver one more goofy but enjoyable trailer. Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart rips PlayStation 5 owners a new one when it launches on June 11th.

Wonderbox: The Adventure Maker (iOS) Review

We're in the latter half of May already, and we've yet to encounter our first review of the month. Well, that is until NOW. SuperPhillip Central continues its run through the wondrous world of Apple Arcade exclusives with this next game, a mix of Captain Toad, Super Mario Maker, and The Legend of Zelda. That's good company to keep! I'm talking about Wonderbox: The Adventure Maker, and here is the SPC review.

An Apple Arcade exclusive with a lot of heart(s of Adventure)

Take one part Captain Toad and mix with the design and creation sensibilities of a Super Mario Maker or a LittleBigPlanet game, and you have the general idea of what Aquiris Game Studio's Wonderbox: The Adventure Maker is all about. It's playing adventures, creating adventures, and sharing adventures to the world. In some regards, Wonderbox reminds me heavily of The Legend of Zelda series in its gameplay execution, and that is a rather flattering comparison in favor of  Aquiris Game Studio's title.

Fortunately, you're not simply thrust into the adventure-making side of Wonderbox immediately. There is a robust campaign of various stories and levels to play through. All of these are simple in the tales they tell, but they naturally introduce new concepts, mechanics, tools, and obstacles to play around with in levels. 

Look before you leap by spinning the camera around to survey each diorama-like room in Wonderbox.

The Captain Toad reference in my review opener deals with how levels in Wonderbox are lovely little dioramas. You can spin them around to notice hidden paths, get a better view of the area, and help guide your custom-made hero or heroine through enemy and hazard-filled levels. Unlike Captain Toad, however, Wonderbox levels are generally comprised of multiple screens. Many later levels are maze-like designs with multiple pathways, multiple routes to take, and plenty of opportunities to double-back or backtrack through these areas. 

The number of environments in Wonderbox's campaign is wide and varied.

The main goal of each level is to acquire a Heart of Adventure within them. In the practical sense, these are the "goal poles" of the level, as once they're retrieved, the level is successfully completed. However, they're not always sitting out in sight. Some levels you're tasked with a trade sequence of sorts, where you must find either coins or other tradeable goods to exchange for the Heart of Adventure. These levels become engaging little scavenger hunts for the player to collect the necessary materials to eventually claim their prized Heart of Adventure.

Ah, a hero's appetite for adventure can only be satiated by the Heart of Adventure!

Wonderbox features a fair amount of tools for your avatar (of which this character earns new clothing, skins, and more upon leveling up from completing adventures). Throughout Wonderbox's campaign, you'll acquire swords and axes to slay monsters and enemies, bows to fire arrows at faraway foes, shields to block incoming attacks, bombs to blast open cracked walls and boulders, a Zelda-style Hookshot to pull yourself across chasms, and a spinning thingamajig which whirls you up into the air to gain some much needed verticality in levels. You can only carry so many tools at once, so many times in levels you'll be required to switch between tools, essentially trading them away for new ones.

Aim well and launch yourself across gaps with this Hookshot-like tool.

For someone like myself who is quite unaccustomed to playing an action-adventure game such as Wonderbox with touch controls, I originally found myself seriously struggling to move, jump, attack, change items, and move the camera around when needed. Having to do two or more of these tasks at the same time was pretty much a "forget about it" proposition for me. Fortunately, like many Apple Arcade games on the service, Wonderbox supports controller via Bluetooth, so once I made the shift over I discovered a more enjoyable game. It was still difficult at times, but generous checkpointing made sure that I was never overly frustrated while playing and enjoying Wonderbox.

Can I go a review where there's a picture of a bat without mentioning the word "batty" as a pun?
Well, technically, no, not in this review either!

As its subtitle implies, Wonderbox: The Adventure Maker is more than just an diorama-style adventure game; you can also create your own adventures. Not just create simple adventures, which by all means is quite possible, but you can also craft some rather complicated creations of your own. Essentially, the adventures created by the developers for Wonderbox's campaign are tutorial and inspiration to help players and prospective creators make their own adventures. While there are thousands of adventures made by players already--and understandably quite a few of them are less than wonderful, to put it generously--it's pretty easy to find well done adventures.

You can basically create anything that you see in the campaign, and I wouldn't be surprised if the devs used their own adventure maker tools to create the campaign in some shape or form. There's a robust toolset available, and through playing the campaign you unlock loads to enjoy to make adventure masterpieces of your own. The process is relatively simple, though to craft something truly terrific and enjoyable, you'll need to put forth an adequate amount of effort. Essentially, your entertainment coming out of The Adventure Maker part of Wonderbox will stem from how much you put into it, as one would expect. 

Wonderbox doesn't have the most exciting art style, but there's no doubt this game is a beauty.

Thus, if you put a great deal of work into your own created adventure, you'll discover plenty of players and flattering compliments (though all of these will be generic ones from a list of choices instead of player-created ones) to make all of it worth it. And overall, it IS worth it. Wonderbox is simply put, an enjoyable creation tool to make fun and quite complex adventures. It helps that the base gameplay is rather enjoyable as well, pending you can either get a handle of the sometimes clunky touch controls or opt for a Bluetooth controller instead. With more adventures planned from the developers themselves and a seemingly endless amount of created adventures from the player base, Wonderbox: The Adventure Maker seems like a great game and creation tool to keep your Apple Arcade subscription running. 

[SPC Says: B]